What it costs to keep the nation's students

Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State for Education and Finchley's MP, was the principal speaker at the annual conference of Barnet Young Conservatives at Letchworth on Saturday. More than 100 members and guests attended the conference.

Prefacing her remarks on education, Mrs. Thatcher referred to the state of the economy. She said that the economy is growing at the forecast rate of 5 per cent.—more than double than was achieved under the Socialists—and the standard of living is rising twice as fast as under Labour.

She said that the state of the economy has a major bearing on education. There are now 400,000 students undergoing higher education—double the number of 10 years ago. To keep one student at university, or higher education college costs around £1,250 a year, compared with £104 to keep a child in nursery school.

Higher education takes approximately a quarter of the total expenditure on education. This proportion would increase as more people stayed on at places of higher education. This year there are 75,000 students who will leave universities and colleges—11,000 of them post-graduates.

Mrs. Thatcher also referred to the cost of accommodating students. Only 17 per cent. of students now go to a university near their homes. Before the Second World War the figure was 40 per cent.

The minister said that fewer undergraduates in the United Kingdom fail to complete their courses than in many other countries. She compared the 13 per cent. failure rate in Britain with the 36 per cent. in Germany and 59 per cent. in France.

Housing

The main debate at the conference was on housing. A motion that local authorities implement a priority programme of council-built houses for immediate sale at cost price was lost by 10 votes.

Speakers in favour of the motion said that many young people are leaving areas such as Barnet because of the high house prices and suggested that compulsory purchase of building land be introduced to enable comparatively inexpensive houses to be built.

Those against the motion stressed that to take away the difficulties of home ownership is to take away the sense of achievement.

After an hour-long debate, Cr. Andrew Pares, chairman of Barnet Council's housing committee, summed up and Mr. Ian Stewart, Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Hitchin, explained Government housing policy.

In a second debate, the Young Conservatives passed a resolution calling for local authorities to make family planning advice available to 16 to 18 year-olds without parental knowledge or consent.

The conference also included a discussion on the way the Conservative Party communicate their policies to the electorate, an explanation by a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Mr. Andrew Alexander, on why Britain should not join the Common Market, and a balloon debate. [end p1]

(2) Finchley Times, 7 July 1972

Mr. Ian Stewart, prospective Parliamentary Conservative candidate for Hitchin, officials opened the conference earlier in the day.

He spoke of the tendency for many people to think that youngsters today were against the establishment. “Superficially, that appears to be the case, but I don't think young people are as revolutionary as they are supposed to be”

Mr. Mike Clarke, chairman of Finchley YCs. welcomed Mrs. Thatcher, and mentioned the “excellent relationship” they had with her at a local level.

Mrs. Thatcher, speaking of the economic situation, said: “Of course we have had a setback and we still have our problems. The greatest of these is inflation, and it is easy to point to the well-publicised settlements, which have been too big.

“But people are not quite so eager to point out that the average settlement in the public sector since Wilberforce has been under 9 per cent—still too high, but a lot less than some people have suggested.

“On prices, too, there has been considerable improvement. Prices are rising now at only about half the rate of a year ago.”

Mrs. Thatcher said there were other encouraging signs. Unemployment had dropped by 170,000 in two months, and on present indications the economy was growing at its forecast rate of 5 per cent a year—more than twice as fast as under Labour.

“The floating of the pound re-emphasises the Government's commitment to economic growth,” she added.

Turning to education, Mrs. Thatcher explained how much money is spent in different spheres, and spoke of the implications.

The cost of a full-time pupil at a nursery school was £200 a year, compared with a figure of £1,250 for someone at university. She commented: “If you are going to expand considerably in higher education, it limits what you can do elsewhere in the system.”

She explained that higher education policy for the next decade had to be formulated this year, and spoke of attempts to forecast manpower needs, graduate unemployment and failure rates.

Questions put to Mrs. Thatcher included one from a polytechnic lecturer, who said his colleagues were worried about lowering of standards, and whether expansion at the same rate would make those standards even lower.

Mrs. Thatcher replied that this was a subject where finding evidence was difficult. “One of my battles is to keep up standards. A British degree means something the world over. There is certainly no lowering of standards coming from me.”

On the question of student loans instead of grants, Mrs. Thatcher said this would hurt those most in need of opportunity.

DEFEATED

A housing debate followed Mrs. Thatcher's speech.

A motion which read: “This conference, bearing in mind the increasing difficulty for young people to purchase their own homes, calls upon local authorities to implement a priority programme of council-built houses for immediate sale at cost price,” was defeated 39.29.

Councillor Andrew Pares, chairman of Barnet's Housing Committee, also spoke.

Councillor Frank Gibson and Councillor Norman Sapsted also were present. Mr. Bernard Sutton, chairman of Hendon South Conservatives, was there with his wife, and the Greater London area YC chairman, Mr. Clive Landa, was present with his wife at dinner.

Later there was a balloon debate, when five speakers represented the Prime Minister, the Pope, Mr. Michael Foot. Joe Soap and a German baron. The five were Mike Clarke, Mike Harris, Robert Atkins, Rodney Gent and Robin Squire.